


to speak truth

by mehenisms



Series: The Vigil Prophecy [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, i have had So Many Thoughts ive written out since d1 and all of them are canon now bc of CoO so, some followers meta for yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mehenisms/pseuds/mehenisms
Summary: a soul, found. lost. found again.a home, found. lost. found again.a family, found. lost. found again.





	to speak truth

He knelt on the hard stone, its warmth radiating softly through the thick padding and heavy fabric of his leggings. His unfastened robes hung heavy on his shoulders, and their ragged edge shifted behind him ever so slightly in the solar wind. Sparrow stared at the ground with hopelessness in his gaze, but it felt more as though he was staring past it and into the stillness of eternity and its solitude, even though he knew he was not alone.  

He rested his hands on his knees as though he were meditating - and in a way, he was. The crackle of fire was a familiar but alienating sound. Any other time it would have comforted him, but this time, it told him that he would have to speak eventually, and the sound of wood splitting in the flame as the solar wind carried its smoke away could be a fearful metaphor.    
   
How dare he keep his brothers and sisters waiting like this? They stood around him in a circle, some holding hands as a symbol of companionship, support, or stability, and others tracing sigils of truth and candor into the air in front of them, blessing the spire’s court so that it may carry the weight of yet another sinner’s honesty after so many years of disuse. But each and every one watched him with vigilant eyes. A thousand dull, mourning, and angry stares burned into his skin, despite his armor.   
   
“A simple misunderstanding.” Sparrow’s voice rang out confidently in spite of himself, as it always did in the presence of the Followers. “A miscommunication. A misstep. That is what led me to leave you.” The ceremony had begun some time ago, and yet it was only now that he dared to speak to his family. He was ashamed, and perhaps even afraid.   
   
“The Legion came forth and we cried out for our savior,” one woman called out, “and yet we were alone. Stone fell from the sky like meteorites, the ground was torn from beneath our feet, and spires toppled like pillars of sand. You were not there!” She paused to choke back her anger, taking a moment to even out her tone before continuing with her questioning. “Explain yourself, oh Coiled One. He Who Burns our enemies, tell us, for you do not act without purpose.”   
   
“Nor do I act without burden.” Sparrow spoke quickly as he lifted his gaze to find her; she was standing in front of him and to the right. “The perils of our home were the perils of all. When the missiles struck the gleaming white, I fell alongside all others. None remained alight, even as we burned. The sky was heavy with ash and screams, and the ground slick with red-turned ichor.”   
   
“How did you fall, brother?”   
   
“Reaching upwards towards the sky. I struck the ground as one does in a nightmare, with force enough to startle awake, and yet, the ringing in my ears and screaming of my bones posed a call to arms instead. I rose - barely, but I knew I must - and as quickly as I found my feet, gravity brought me to my knees again. No sound could express the agony, so I knelt in silence, desperately chasing breath.”   
   
“Tell us how it felt.”   
   
Sparrow hesitated, swallowing the lump he felt forming in his throat. “Like being torn in two. Like feeling sickness rend one’s body apart cell by cell, but in a single heartbeat. The fear of the greatest nightmare, of a monster dragging me into shadow and holding me down. As though my flesh was burning but not with my own flames. As though I had never known the joy of air in my lungs - a simple blessing that I have now come to love tenfold.” 

The crowd was silent. Throughout this interrogation Sparrow had hardly lifted his gaze from the uneven Vex stone upon which he knelt, and, aside from a few brief moments of nearly-painful eye contact with those who called out aloud for answers, instead closed his eyes tightly, like a child grimacing when caught doing something they knew they ought not to do. He had not chosen this, but he knew many of them thought that he had deliberately stayed away from them in these trying times. It was not a decision he would have needed time to mull over, but he had been on the brink of death countless times in the first day alone, and he hadn't the means to return to them for weeks thereafter. And yet, within some of his siblings, their faith flickered as a candle facing the threat of burning out. But perhaps he was being selfish by taking this so personally. It was personal, of course, as all things are in this family, but the opposite is also true. It was painful for them as well – the fear must have been excruciating – and so he drew in a deep, low breath, and waited. 

It was a long moment filled with mumblings and whispers before another voice called out over the wind.    
   
“...How did you proceed?”   
   
“I--” Sparrow found himself stuttering in the midst of these memories. “I found my heart knelt in front of me, hands on her head, mouth open wide in a scream I could not hear over the ringing in my ears. The ground around us was riddled with mortar shells and smoke. Buildings fell like grains of sand blown away in the solar wind. My soul laid lifeless at my feet, its shell cracked from such a great fall; Goliath tanks paraded proudly through the streets as though a few moments were all it took to achieve victory.” He paused to furrow his brow, tilt his head, and open his eyes to stare at the stone beneath him once again. “Perhaps, against all belief...it was.”   
   
“But did you accept this victory? This false claim to humanity’s very breath?” 

Sparrow remained silent for a long moment. With another breath held deep in his lungs, he sighed softly, and slowly closed his eyes again. He sat up straighter before daring to offer the only half-answer he could speak honestly, not daring to look at any of them.  

“That...I cannot say. Such a thing is not so simple as it seems – should I have acted? In return, I ask this: Did I not? When we saw the ships, my angel and I, we sooner ran than even breathed. Ran for our weapons, for our armor – for things we had sought to leave behind, but knew must be weaponized in defense of those walls, and every soul within them. We--”   
   
A smaller voice found its way to his ears, interrupting his cautious words. “Did you know?” A heavy silence fell upon them all, silencing whispers, as the question carried on the breeze. A young disciple - Awoken, and no older than twenty - found his way to the front of the crowd, and fearlessly met Sparrow’s now risen, piercing gaze without even a second’s hesitation. “Did you know you had lost your soul?” 

“Hmm.” Sparrow found himself curling his fingers and holding tightly to fistfuls of his robes: A sign of spiraling distress, and the onset of a need for a calmer environment. It was a bad time to be autistic, but he couldn’t afford to give in to his exhaustion and sensory needs right now. Falling prey to a meltdown was not an option. “What’s in a soul?” He powered through; his voice, shaky at first, gained stability as he went on. His eyes remained locked on the ground for a moment more. “Is the soul something we can be given, such as partnership with a Ghost? Is it something within each of us, like the Light, merely awakened by the moment it finds its place?”  

He raised his eyes above the heads of his family and stared at the golden cloudless sky, shimmering with the heat of the sun. “Look to our star. Are not our souls there? Are we not birthed anew each day by its warmth, waking us from our travels within the Duat? We breathe by its radiance. Feel its heat; we live beneath it so simply that we forget its power. So long as we burn, so long as we sweat, so long as we walk through these sands – alive – are not our  _ka_ _u_ at rest within us? Are we not living  _akh_ _u_ , acting as intermediaries for those who have not yet seen the light of day?” 

Slowly, Sparrow dragged his eyes down from the skies to return his stare to the boy who had so bravely voiced this challenge. Neither looked away.  

“If the soul is quantified by the Light,” Sparrow began carefully, desperately planning his words to ensure that they would be understood as he meant them, “then what are those of you who bear no Ghost? 

“I slogged through marsh and mist, across fields and cliffsides, and lived within the carcass of civilizations long lost. By the hand of an angel, I took up the blade. By the might of necessity, I balled up my fists. Like my cloaked family, I clothed myself with rags. As do the pillars of the City, I took up the mark of those lost. Days I spent in mud-soaked boots and thin-worn robes, trekking over mountains, reciting the names of those fallen who would not rise again. As the numbers climbed and our patrol dwindled, I admit with regret that I lost track of them all. May their  _ka_ _u_ find peace and their  _ba_ _u_ soar above darkness. Each  _Ren_ lives on in all of us; we are their body.” 

“We remember, and they live anew. Blessed Dead, you are True of Voice.” The call-and-response chant echoed off of the sun-warmed spire’s open-air court and rose into the air to be swept away by the solar wind that gently tugged every person’s hair and clothing, like a child seeking a parent’s attention. As quickly as the words rang out, they faded into nothingness, but their impact left Sparrow with a peaceful weight in his stomach. His burden to bear was no longer his alone.  

“At last,” A familiar, quiet voice spoke, “we seek your truth’s end.” Vance stepped forward, Faora at his side and guiding him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. He wore the calm demeanor of a leader, but the uncertainty Sparrow knew to always plague him could not be hidden from knowing eyes by neither a blindfold or squared shoulders and tall posture. Vance’s lip quivered in silence - a sign of his distress. The judgement process was not an easy one to bear witness to, especially not as a leader...or as one with close ties to he who was to be judged. Faora, on the other hand, looked from Vance’s stoic demeanor to Sparrow’s hopeful expression with the same half-smirk she wore so often, and nodded just once, ever so slightly, and in that moment, Sparrow felt a great weight lifted off of his shoulders.  

He was no longer afraid. 

“What did you learn, Vizier?”  

“We are the scales. Lay down your heart.” As his family spoke in unison once again in response to Vance’s call, Sparrow felt a strange sort of chill tingle down his spine. His chest ached as his moment approached, and the drumbeat of his heart punctuated every thought, every word. He swore the congregation could hear it; it was distracting to say the least. He could feel his blood boiling under so much pressure. 

Quieter, now, and once again from Vance: “What did you learn?” 

_Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump._  

“I....” 

_Thump. Thump. Thump._  

“I found that peace lives in strange places at strange times.” 

_Thump. Thump._  

“That it is in every fallen leaf as it is in every one that clings to the cracked, broken branches of the only home they know.” 

_Thump. Thump. Thump._  

“That immortality is fleeting, and love truly does live forever in spite of that. That pain is eternal, but death lasts only a moment. That drifting to sleep is  _not_  like taking your last breath.” 

_Thump._  

“And that falling is not much like flying at all.”  

The wind whistled through the crowd, who stood as still as the spire itself. But it was barely audible, Sparrow was certain, over the beating of his own heart. His eyes fell back down to the stone floor, he relaxed his grip on his robes and laid his palms flat on his thighs once more, and he leaned back to rest his weight on his heels, wishing not to appear small or ungallant in the wake of his words. He hoped the simplicity of them would be enough to satisfy the ocean of feelings that plagued this jury, and that he would not be cast out of the one place he felt he belonged only for sins he did not intend to commit.  

A moment passed, then another. Still another, and another. Time seemed to slow down; Sparrow dared not move. He closed his eyes. He would accept whatever came next, even if it took the rest of his eternity to make peace with it. 

“...Rise, Brother Sparrow, as  _Ma’at_ _Kheru_.” Vance nearly shouted into the wind, struggling to hide the relief in his voice. “Justified.” 

“He is True of Voice!” The crowd responded in kind, and a variety of individual chants and exclamations of joy followed. 

 “The Enveloper! He Who Hides The Hours!”  

“Mehen!  _Weret-Hekau_!” 

“ _Dua_ _Wesir_ , our brother is home at last.” 

“He Who Rises!” 

As he was hailed by his people, Sparrow took to his feet, heart still pounding. In spite of the noise and the chaos of it all, he managed to find happiness and comfort in the rush of the crowd as they all moved towards him. Those closest to the center – Vance and Faora, of course – laid their hands upon his shoulders, and those behind them placed their hands on their shoulders, and so it went until no one was apart from the whole. 

“The Cobra returns!”  

Sparrow smiled. He was home at last.

**Author's Note:**

> sparrow is my primary destiny oc, and his story heavily revolves around the followers of osiris and his leadership role among them.
> 
> **italicized words and some capitalized phrases are kemetic in origin - i.e. they are pulled directly from ancient egyptian vernacular/religious texts. ill post a small list of meanings below (in order of appearance)!**
> 
> Coiled One - epithet/praise title for the snake deity mehen  
> He Who Burns - epithet/praise title for the snake deity mehen  
> Duat - the otherworld/netherworld; a place where the Blessed Dead traverse many trials and face many demons in order to reach the Eastern/Western Horizons ( i.e. heaven )  
> ka (s.)/kau (p.) - a part of the egyptian concept of a soul, meant to symbolize the personality and concept of the living self after death  
> akh (s.)/akhu (p.) - Blessed Dead; deceased individuals/ancestors of the living who have been deemed worthy of journeying to the Horizons after death by maintaining ma'at (peace and balance; see below) during life. often portrayed as being messengers between the living and the gods  
> ba (s.)/bau (p.) - the eternal portion of the egyptian soul that can never die, unless fed directly to a demon when the deceased is being judged by Wesir (god of the afterlife and new beginnings, king of the gods, known to the greeks as "Osiris"; see below)  
> ren - the True Name of an individual; part of the egyptian soul. it was believed that you were born with three names: one given to you, one you were called, and a secret name given to you by the gods (the ren). the first was for use with family, the second to use with everyone, and the third was never to be given out. if someone knew your ren, it was believed that they had complete and total power over you  
> blessed dead - see "akh/akhu" above  
> true of voice - a term used to describe the blessed dead, or those whose hearts were not as heavy as the feather of truth when they were judged by Wesir after death  
> vizier - a political title in ancient egypt. each pharaoh(/nisut, the proper word for "king") had a vizier, and they were second only to the king himself. it was the duty of the vizier to oversee all projects carried out across both upper and lower egypt on a grand scale, and to ensure the safety and well-being of the people on a small scale as well (i.e. personally testing water supplies and food, etc.). direct adviser to the king; often a close family member/child of the king's  
> the scales - the scales of anubis(/yinepu, his egyptian name. anubis is the greek translation). the heart of the deceased is placed on one side and weighed against the feather of truth (plucked from the wing of the goddess ma'at, who is also a conceptual being representing balance, justice, peace, etc.). if the heart is lighter than the feather, then the dead is allowed to proceed on their journey through the duat/netherworld, but if it is heavier than the feather, the dead's soul is fed to a demon, ammit, and they cease to exist forever (this is known as the Weighing of the Heart ceremony)  
> ma'at kheru - justified; true of voice (see above)  
> justified - true of voice; ma'at kheru (see above)  
> the enveloper - epithet/praise title for the snake deity mehen  
> he who hides the hours - epithet/praise title for the snake deity mehen; reference to mehen as the guardian of ra as he travels through the netherworld during the hours of the night  
> mehen - snake deity of the netherworld/duat, guardian of the deceased and protector of the sun god ra as he travels through the duat to renew the sun each day; origin of the ouroboros/infinity snake symbol; also a game played by the egyptians based off of the aforementioned deity  
> weret-hekau - Great of Magic; a title given to certain deities who have great control over heka (magic, typically derived from the surrounding world/given by the gods)  
> dua - "praise", "praise be to--"; a word used to hail and invoke a god or goddess, usually followed by their name, but also used individually as an exclamation of joy  
> wesir - the original egyptian name of osiris (which is the greek translation), god of the afterlife, new beginnings, fresh growth, and king of the gods; represents past/dead kings, and is the father of horus (the falcon god of upper and lower egypt, representing the living king)  
> he who rises - epithet/praise title for the snake deity wadjet; also applied to mehen due to some overlapping natures and their shared sacred animal (snake/cobra)
> 
> bonus:  
> the cobra - reference to the d1 armor set "cobra's vigil", which only sparrow owns due to it representing his role as The Cobra in the Vigil prophecy, in which three guardians (the cobra, the lion, and the scarab) would lead the followers/humanity as a whole to victory over the darkness by directly confronting it themselves
> 
> ty for reading! <333


End file.
